Show and Tell.

Yesterday, my two sets of parents came up to have a birthday dinner with my son, Isaac. My dad spent last week in China on business. He's been there several times and always has interesting things to tell us all about after his trips. Since gift giving is a very important things in that culture he also often brings home interesting or unusual items he has been given. He also often bestows upon me all sorts of special teas, which are frequent gift items. Right now I have about 8 various sized tins and boxes of Chinese teas on my counter because Dad is not much of a tea drinker. Yesterday Dad also brought along a fancy box containing moon cakes and tea. He said all he knew was that they were some sort of seasonal item and considered a delicacy.

We had dinner and birthday cake and after all that was cleared I made a pot of tea and served the moon cakes. Since we were enjoying special Chinese treats I used the Chinese tea set we were given for our wedding. One of our groomsmen had spent 4 months in Beijing right before our wedding and carried the box containing our tea set on his lap for the whole flight because he was afraid to check or stow it for fear of breakage.

Here are the 4 moon cakes with my tea set and the presentation box they came packaged in. Since we can't read Chinese we had no idea what was in the cakes except that Dad had been told there were two kinds, one was sweet and the other had meat. Here is one up close...

Here is the inside of the moon cakes. We all figured the one on the right was nuts of some sort and I guessed the one on the left was duck egg. The consistency of the one on the left was firm enough to hold shape but you could have spread it over toast or something if you wanted to. It was also very sweet. I preferred the one with nuts but my dad and Diana seemed to prefer the one with duck egg. The tea was very pale and had a very mild flavor but was a lovely compliment to the cakes.

After our little cultural experience I was compelled by curiosity to know more so I googled 'Moon cakes' and found out they are eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is linked to the Chinese moon goddess of immortality. I had guessed correctly about the one containing duck egg. One or more salted yolks are put inside the moon cake to symbolize the full moon. Other traditional fillings can be lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste, jujube paste or, as we tasted ourselves, 5 kernels (walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame, almonds, candied winter melon, dried ham, or rock sugar can be included). Apparently, the characters on top are symbols for longevity or harmony as well as indicating the contents and perhaps the bakery name. I also found out moon cakes had been used as puzzles to hide secret messages during the Han Chinese revolt that occurred during the Ming Dynasty. The four cakes would be cut into quarters and rearranged to give the message and then could obviously be eaten to destroy the message. Tea and espionage anyone?

So allow me now to share MY family's tradition and culture. The tradition in our house for birthdays is that the honoree gets to choose the dinner menu and what sort of cake they want me to make. Isaac wanted baked ravioli for dinner but said he didn't care what kind of cake he had. I decided to make Funny Cake, which is a Pennsylvania Dutch treat. It seems to be less common in Lancaster County, which is the most famous PA Dutch region. Most of the folks I have met from there have never heard of it but where I grew up in Berks County it's more well known. Some people are known to use lemon instead of chocolate. I find that rather disturbing. The recipe I use was my great grandmother's and it makes 3 cakes. The proportions in the recipe are such that they don't easily divide to make a smaller batch. Besides, it is so yummy one is never quite enough.

The Pennsylvania Dutch, who are really Germans but the English settlers misunderstood when the Germans called themselves Deutsch, are fond of putting cake batter into pie crust for dessert. If you've ever had a shoo fly pie, that is the most famous example of this phenomenon. Funny cake starts with the pie crust (And I'd never dream of using a store bought crust!). You then pour the cake batter into the unbaked crust before pouring a chocolate sauce mixture on top of the batter. As it bakes, the chocolate sinks though the batter to make the layer on the bottom and leave swirly patterns on top. Some people try to float the batter on top of the sauce before baking. This is an abomination. Please try to remember if you attempt the recipe.

FUNNY CAKE (yield 3)

3 unbaked pie crusts (sorry, some things have to remain a family secret, use your own recipe)

Batter

1 1/2 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup solid shortening

2 eggs

2 1/2 Cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

-Cream together shortening and sugar, cream in the eggs, beat in milk and dry ingredients alternately. Divide into the 3 pie crusts.

Chocolate Sauce

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup Cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups boiling water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-Mix all ingredients well. Divide by pouring over the three cakes until the top of the batter is just covered. Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Fress (eat) up now!